


I am under the threat of murder.

by viraseii



Category: Original Work
Genre: Activism, Gun Violence, Politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 15:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13861056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viraseii/pseuds/viraseii
Summary: This is for EVERYONE.In light of recent events, I sent an essay pushing for gun control to my senators.You should too.Don't stop speaking out. Don't let up. Print it out and physically mail it if you can. Edit it and add to it.Spread this.





	I am under the threat of murder.

The stability of democracy depends directly on participation and representation. As a citizen, one’s right to vote is to have a say in the laws that govern them. In times of crisis, a democratic leader serves to listen to citizens and relay their collective opinion forward in order to execute a decision that the citizens of the state have chosen. The Declaration of Independence renounces monarchy and top-down rule in favor of a democratic nation in which the citizens collectively decide how to govern themselves.

In a healthy democratic state, people protest to fight for a better future. These protests impact legislature and the country grows and moves forward. In totalitarian rule, outside opinions are neglected, protesters are prosecuted, and the government cultivates a spirit of like-mindedness and utter obedience to those in power.

February 14, 2018, seventeen teenagers are murdered in a building meant for education. February 15, 2018, my school goes into lockout because of a stabbing in the area.

In the past few months, in my area alone, teenagers have shot and killed each other over drug issues, a woman has been found dismembered in a suitcase, and my school has gone into lockout three times. Every time the intercom dings, we expect a shooter to arrive on campus.

As a citizen of a free country, I have seen the increasing abundance of fatalistic humor. Ten year old children joke about committing suicide and how living is pointless. The discussion of a shootout is a common everyday conversation. At the dinner table my voice shakes as I admit I’m afraid to go to school. I live the life I see in movies: I face the possibility of death every day like a soldier, I stay quiet out of hopelessness for change like a subject, I grow numb to everyday horrors like a veteran.

I am seventeen, and my response to the news headline “Deadliest Shooting in America” is “oh, another one.”

I write to you not with careful research and structured argument, but with common knowledge of an average high school student. It is common knowledge that at any moment a bullet can crack through my bones as I study. It is common knowledge that my school enters lockout so often that I expect its announcement more than I expect the call for the Pledge of Allegiance. It is common knowledge that only half of my classmates stand and put their hand on their heart for the American flag, because we do not feel free or great when a church is being shot up in another city. When our choir asks if the flag still waves over the land of the free and the home of the brave, it is common knowledge that the answer is no. America has failed to fulfill its own promise of liberty and freedom.

There is no freedom in going to school with a prayer on your lips that you will come back home after seven hours. I don’t want to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July while my friend whispers, “I hate America.”

Australia implemented gun control after their schools started getting shot up, and as a result the threat has been neutralized. Countries in Europe have implemented gun control and crime has gone down. There’s a direct cause-and-effect relationship between access to weapons and rates of crime.

No seventeen year old should be able to legally obtain a semi, drive to a school, and kill his former classmates. Teachers without guns stepped up and took multiple bullets to protect their students. They are the heroes of the current era, and they have served America without pulling a trigger.

As a politician, you are bound to serve the state. You take an oath to work toward a better future for the citizens of the nation.

The most common arguments against gun control point out that the right to bear arms is protected by the second amendment. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. A lunatic, someone mentally ill, will hurt people regardless of the presence of weapons. The problem lies not in the existence of items of protection, but in the unhinged people who use those items for destruction.

The fact remains that a psychopath with a hydrogen bomb will always be more dangerous than a psychopath with a kitchen knife. We use the phrase “armed and dangerous” to describe possible threats.

People will always be dangerous. It is in human nature to be individual and unique. America is built on the principle of each citizen’s right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and thus there will always be a madman pursuing the happiness he gets from hurting people.

There is, however, a potential to change the phrase “armed and dangerous” to simply “dangerous.”

The second amendment was written in a time when imperialism and empire-building were typical pursuits for world powers. America required a strong military to maintain its freedom, required weapons to fight for independence and the ability to govern themselves. In 2018, America is losing its freedom to this very same amendment. The common street thug can easily find a gun and kill elementary school children.

Thus far, America has only mourned for Sandy Hook, for Las Vegas, for Pulse, for the Florida high school shooting on the day we celebrate love. In the time of the revolution, had the founding fathers emulated this same attitude, they would have continued to whine about British colonization and would never have done anything about it. If we are choosing to continue to look to the past, then we must look to the successes of the past. People who stand for change have always lead to progress and betterment of the nation. The men who stood against the law paved a path for a free America.

There is always a way to change the law for the better. If our predecessors understood that and acted upon it, it is a crime to neglect that wisdom for ourselves.

There will always be mentally ill people.

Under the current legislature, there will always be guns.

The warning phrase will always be “armed and dangerous.”

The time is long overdue for us to prove we have the power to provide freedom for ourselves. We have the power to make America safer. We have the power to change current tragedies into future victories. We can not outlaw individuality, and we can not prevent mentally ill people from hurting others. What we can do is implement gun control.

We can change the phrase to “dangerous.”

We can take away the access to guns. The psychopath with the hydrogen bomb will always be more dangerous than the psychopath with the kitchen knife; the depressed teenager with the legally bought gun will always be more dangerous than the depressed teenager who shoves other kids around with his hands.

It should not take thousands of children’s deaths to convince us there is a problem. A single death is a tragedy, and any more than that is mounting proof of the failure of a nation to protect its own citizens.

No parent should send their child off to school warning them against the threat of guns and shootings. No teenager should drive to school hoping they’ll be alive to drive back. No classroom should be a battlefield.

The simplest argument remains: the harder it is for an average citizen to buy a gun, the less possibility there is that an average citizen will kill twenty people within an hour.

If people who intend to get their hands on a weapon will eventually find a way, why would you hand it to them in exchange for some cash? Why wouldn’t you work as hard as you can to prevent the murder of your own future generation? Why wouldn’t you send your own child off to learn with complete confidence that they’ll come back?

The push for gun control is not a hindrance to those families who wish to grieve and honor their lost children. It is a service to them.

It is common high school knowledge that tragedy will keep befalling the students of America, and that the government will refuse to even consider banning general public access to guns - even in a time where there is no king to overthrow, no terrorist to protect ourselves from. It is common high school knowledge that with the continuation of easy access to guns, we are making ourselves into our own terrorists. America is committing suicide, and it is common high school knowledge that no matter how much we mourn, how much we cry for the government to take a stand, to change the law so children will not face the threat of bullets every day, things will not change. Because democracy is dead.

So prove us wrong. Become the democracy America claims it is. Allow citizens of America to have a say in their own lives. Allow children to learn in school without the threat of death.

Push for stronger gun control.

Implement it.

Now.


End file.
